From Gladium to Adamantis. What became possible with Æquo's novel nano composites that wasn't before? "It allowed walls at a fractional thickness of those required by more traditional wood/aluminium panels whilst providing vastly improved anti-resonant qualities. It allowed greater design freedom without increased production labor. The Adamantis has similar cubic volume as the Gladium prototype but is a much more graceful speaker. Gladium also needed a smaller tweeter to reach sufficient vertical dispersion by mounting on a baffle tilted enough for satisfactory time alignment. Ideally a baffle curves at different tilts between midrange/woofer vs midrange/tweeter. The new design achieves that. Now a bigger tweeter like Ensis and Stilla didn't hurt vertical dispersion. This provided for increased resolution from a lower crossover point. Other than membrane size, the Gladium tweeter had its parameters based on the Stilla tweeter. When evaluating the potential of Adamantis, we felt it would best fit the super high-resolution Ensis motor. This positions it far beyond any passive loudspeakers at this price.

"Bending and pre-tensioning walls/panels increases anti-torsional stiffness. Pre-stressed structures also provide vastly better damping. Still, some material-specific resonances might occur. Anti-resonant properties effectively multiply when bonding two different materials. One damps the other. It’s best to choose one for high stiffness, the other for max damping. Nicely curved walls made from sandwiched materials might perform but are harder to predict and make for higher production costs. Ensis used a ceramic/polymer composite on front and top, billet aluminium opposite the woofer and Finnish birch ply braces in a forged multi-wood sandwich hull. Measurement evaluation then added a very expensive tungsten-filled resin composite to specific areas. Stilla used similar features in a more cost-effective full ceramic composite shell without tungsten. Applying these measures, the compact extensively braced Ensis and Stilla only needed 1cm thick walls with some extra material for problematic areas."

"Most larger and/or less curvy speakers need far thicker walls, even those made from more advanced materials. We've seen highly damped not so stiff Panzerholz (Kaiser); fairly damped/stiff ceramic composites (Wilson); Panzerholz/ceramic (Kronos); quite stiff poorly damped aluminium (YG, Magico). Some brands use aluminium or wood with intermediate damping layers (Gauder); carbon, epoxy and MDF (Rockport); glass fiber with balsawood (Vivid). We've see pre-tensioning with bolts (Magico) or mechanical features (Sonus faber). Looking at performance versus price, increasing value seems not so easy.

"Nanocast™ helps form an ideal crystalloid configuration of metal molecules [silver hexagons at left]. This ensures damping regardless of frequency, consistency and permanently without need of tension which wears down over time. Enhanced stiffness comes from connective nano elements [violet tubes] which tightly hold the grid together. This prohibits bending and allows more energy storage capacity. It then optimizes damping by increasing friction between crystals with nano boundary modifiers [red] as well as improving thermal conductivity by bridging the molecular grid for increased energy transfer. This greatly improves the composite's thermal conductivity.

"The Adamantis cabinet is cast in two complicated shells of non-resonant metal matrix composite joined by 11 x M10 bolts. These custom fasteners seal the enclosure with damping-enhancing tension three times higher than standard bolts. Derived from computer modelling and simulating the dynamic forces at play, the cabinet then adds two side reinforcements in front of the woofer with a strong connection to the plinth. Additionally, several slanted inserts filled with thermoplastic Nanotech damping polymer composite [violet areas below] decouple the enclosures of the tweeter and filter from the enclosure of the woofer and its port as well as provide an acoustic barrier between the higher/lower cabinet halves."